


A Pyrrhic Victory

by DisguisedasInnocent



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 06:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4866305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisguisedasInnocent/pseuds/DisguisedasInnocent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Final Battle comes, and there’s a price to be paid for victory. Laura never imagined that it would be the same as defeat. Yet, sometimes, lightning does strike twice and this time there isn’t a cure for death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pyrrhic Victory

There's blood splattered on her chin, and it breaks your heart. It dribbles from her lips and drops onto her shirt in thick sickening black globules. Her lips are twisted into the shape of a weary smile and her cheeks are ghostly pale. You want to scream out the anger that bubbles in your chest, but you do not have the air to even breathe.

"Sorry," She spits out the word between heaving lungfuls of useless air.

In the quiet nights you had spent beneath the canopy of her bed she had told you of a vampire's instinct to breathe—useless, and unerringly human that it broke your heart. It was during those nights that she described the heavy weight of suffocation. The useless knowledge that her lungs did not need the air that they burned for, but the naive human need to suck it in regardless. She told you of the long years spent trapped underneath the ground, thickened congealed blood sitting on top of her lungs, and the desperate desire to breathe only to be choked on the diseased blood. You cried the tears she had been unable to shed for her that night, and sorrow settled in your chest at her first love's destruction. 

"Carm..." Her name slips from your mouth brokenly. 

You collapse to your knees at her side, one hand dropping to curl underneath the back of her neck whilst the other slides onto her stomach, clutching her shirt as if your fingers could hold her flesh together. She smiles, and the corners of her mouth twitch. 

"Didn't think it'd be like this." She says slowly, her words rasping in her chest. "Guess I got to be a hero again Cupcake." 

"Carm..." You whimper her name in desperation, in remorse, in sorrow. You can see the light shimmering in her eyes, the shadow of her love burning in her gaze, and the ghost of her soul in the tears that leaked down her cheeks. "You can't..."

"I don't think I have a choice Cupcake." Carmilla answered, her voice gentle, her words final. 

"Please, I need you..." You sob as you collapse onto her chest. You push your forehead against her collarbone and let the tears flooding your face soak her shirt. "If you need blood, take mine, please."

She smiles softly, lifting her hand to curl her fingers around your jaw, smoothing her thumb across your cheek. "I'd kill you Laura." She said. "I'm too damaged."

"How much do you need?" You whisper. You know you are pleading—begging—for a chance to save her. 

"More than you have to give." She replied with a pained sigh. "Please, don't Laura. It's all right. You're here."

"Always," You promise. The word slips out of your lips without a thought. "I... I love you Carmilla." 

A weak laugh erupts from her mouth, and the sound of it lights a smile on your lips. The weak rumble of her chuckle causes your heart to soar. "I love you too." She says, and you can see the fierce conviction in her eyes as she implores you to understand the weight of her words. 

In this, her third death, you hold her hand as she weakens and press a kiss to her forehead when her hand falls from your cheek. 

For the first time, she isn't left alone.

**Author's Note:**

> A Pyrrhic victory - A victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.


End file.
